LEARN FROM MINNESOTA

 I am a couple episodes behind for Special Report (FNC) ... so this statement was on yesterday's show (20Feb2024), when interviewing a potential voter:

        "I'll probably vote for an Independant, they may not get in, but I can't in good conscience vote for either of them"  by Elizabeth (SC, no last name or other info given)

Okay - here's the issue with that ...

When you look at those running as Independants you will find that most of them used to call themselves democrasts - not that its a bad thing, China and Russia we aren't - but they tend to vote with the Democratic party anyways ...

Also --

Jesse Ventura ran for MN Governor in 1999  ... no one thought he would win ... he was running against Skip Humphrey (D), son of VP Hubert H. Humphrey ... and Sen. Norm Coleman, he brought back professional hockey to MN and, when he was mayor, fixed a LOT of issues with the St. Paul city budget, even straightening out the snowplowing issues they were having.

Jesse's big thing was - Vote for Me, I Ain't Them.
Jesse came up with the terms "Democrips" and "Rebloodicans" when describing the 2 big parties ...

Jesse NEVER thought he'd win ... after all, there were LOTS of other 3rd party candidates running as well.

But on election night ... it was split nearly 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3.

It wasn't until about 2-3AM hat Jesse was declared the winner

His first couple of years were great -
    Lower car registration/Liscense plate fees
    Tax surpluses got refunded to those who paid the taxes
    Bi-Annual budget got passed (he had a unique technique for this one)
    (there's something else, I just can't remember at the moment)

butt then ... Jesse became Jesse again. 

He felt "attacked" by the media because they asked him questions of substance ... he even walked out of an interview with Tom Hauser, a very respected reporter in the state (he's the host of At Issue on our local station, KSTPk/ABC) ....

Jesse did most of what he said he wanted to do .... he also wanted to make the MN state Senate and the MN stae House and combine them into a Unicameral (?) system ...
not sure I spelled that correctly, but I know what I mean and I think I've explained it well enough

When he ran out of stuff to do ... he didn't really care for the job anymore.
He stopped doing the job for he most part ... he seemed to have gone into hiding so he couldn't be asked any questions.

He did become a spokesman for Independant parties though -- THAT type of thing he'd show up for ... but the job as governor, it didn't seem like he would very much.

And it didn't really take that much to get eople to vote for him.

We had a rather polorized state at the thime -- sound familiar -- and the 2 main candidates kept going after each other, trying their best to ignore Jesse.

This sounds sooooo familiar, right now.

People didn't like who the 2 main parties picked ... or they didn't wantt Norm Coleman to leave his job as US Sentator (he was really good) .... Jesse went to the Universities/Colleges in the state and said "hey vote for me" ... Jesse was Pro-Legalization of Recreational Marijuana (insert eyeroll here) 

But Jesse got ignored by the media .... by the candidates ... by the pollsters ... so they never got a clear set of numbers.

"Undecided" became the largest difference in the state.

This year "Undecided" could be the largest, most influential group in the election ...

CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATE with intent .... don't just assume that your "throw away" vote may not make a difference.

It really might.